Pantherophis emoryi (Baird & Girard 1853)—Great Plains Rat
Snake

Synonyms.Elaphe emoryi, Elaphe guttata

Elaphe guttata
is the name under which most of our fossil records were published. Splitting of that
taxon resulted in snakes of our region becoming E. emoryi. The generic name of
Pantherophis for New World snakes formerly known as Elaphe is now being
used as a result of the contention that New World Elaphe is a genus separate
from Old World Elaphe. Since the genus Elaphe was described from Old
World populations, the name applies to those species. There also is some suggestion
that Pantherophis may be congeneric with the genus Pituophis.

Fig. 1. Great Plains Rat Snake. Photograph by Carl S Lieb.

The fossil records given here are within the current range of P. emoryi.